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Pirates flock to Praa Sands Raft Race

The maximum number of 30 teams entered Sunday's race.

On Sunday 12 August, over 5000 people flocked to Praa Sands beach in Cornwall for the fifth Annual Praa Sands Pirate Raft Race in aid of ShelterBox. The maximum number of 30 rafts took part in the race that draws together tourists and locals from all around the county.

This was the fifth consecutive year that this event has taken place and as always, the competitors were creative when building their rafts. The flagship raft was a 22 foot articulated pirate robot that was designed by Shane Mcgroggan, one of the event organisers. The winners of the ‘Best Fancy Dress’ competition were ‘Levy Airways’ from Porthleven. Their airline raft came complete with a captain, pilot, air hostesses & flag waver whilst the yellow van raft of ‘Trotter’s Independent Traders’ took home the prize for best raft. The fastest team over the line were the Village Boys from Gweek.

Once the raft race was over, there was plenty more fun to be had as the beach games kicked off and local musicians provided entertainment from midday onwards. There had also been a party the night before to raise further funds.

Carol Crow, one of the event organisers said: ‘We would like to thank all of our sponsors, Norman & Chris Coward for the car parks, David and Colin from Higher Pentreath Camp Site for providing use of their field as an overflow car park and all the many people who gave up their time to make this event so successful.’

Liz Mulloy, ShelterBox Events Co-ordinator, said: 'It was a brilliant event and it was great to see so many people enjoying a really fun day. Lots of people came to our stand to find out more about our work and a lot of money was raised for ShelterBox. We will confirm the exact total raised as soon as the counting is finished and would like to thank the event organisers, sponsors and volunteers who all worked so hard to make the event a success.'